Summer Lost
by TheFunkiestDuckling
Summary: Rkkki Chadwick was afraid that she would end up riding the bus with a complete stranger who would discover her secret. She instead meets Cleo, a girl who shares with Rikki that she is a mermaid and Rikki realizes how much they have in common. But when a series of incidents at school may lead to Cleo's secret being discovered, Rikki finds herself powerless to help her friend.
1. The Beginning Of An End

**Hello! Thanks for checking out this story! This is based off of a true event, so it should be easy for me to write. If you're/you've read/are reading 'Beauty And The Beast', my first fanfic, you may not trust my ability to update, and I don't blame you. Don't worry though, as this will be an extremely short fanfiction. I'm talking 5-10 chapters. Enough rambling from me. Enjoy the story!**

. That year, I boarded the bus with my hands stuffed in my pockets and my fingers crossed. I took a seat towards the front of the bus and sighed. Today was the first day of my 3rd grade year. I knew that Emma, my best friend, was in my class, but I didn't know if any of my friends rode my bus. I hoped with all of my being that they did, as the ride on the bus was about 30-45 minutes, an awfully long time to sit alone. I crossed my fingers tighter at every bus stop, desperately wishing that one of my friends would board the bus here. However, my wishes were in vain and I was still alone when the bus pulled up to school. I felt a tear well in my eye as I realized that I would be riding alone for the rest of the year, and possibly for the next years to come.

"Hey, Rikki!" Emma exclaimed,excited to see me after the long Summer. Emma and her family had gone on vacation for the entire Summer and we hadn't seen each other in ages.

"Hey, Em!" I said, still rather downhearted and dreading the year of lonely bus rides facing me.

"What's wrong?" My best friend asked, picking up on the glum tone to my voice. "Are you okay"

"I'm fine." I replied. "I'm just not looking forward to riding the bus alone for the rest of the year."

"Oh," Emma paused for a moment before continuing to speak, "I'm sorry."

"You got any friends riding with you?" I asked her.

"I've got Lewis." Emma shrugged. "I guess he's good enough company." I couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Better than nothing!" Emma laughed before a sorrowful,sympathetic look clouded her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted when the bell rang and the announcements began. Emma, the good student that she was, immediately shut her mouth as to not be caught talking during announcements. If I were talking to anyone else, I would have kept speaking, but I knew that talking to Emma would only earn me a scolding glare and a hushed whisper from her to shut my mouth.

The rest of the day flew by and I groaned when I stepped out and remembered how lonely I was going to be for the rest of the year.

"Maybe you should try sitting next to someone who looks lonely," Emma suggested, walking up beside me.

"I scanned the people on the bus this morning. Everyone sat with someone else and they were all talking and laughing. Don't worry, I'll be fine." I said, shrugging and giving Emma a small smile.

Just as the first day, the school year flew by and I began to adjust to being alone. I even began to sort of like having nobody around to bother me. No one really bothered to even glance at me, let alone sit next to me. I began to think that maybe the year wouldn't be such a bad one after all. The quiet realky gave me the chance to think and I had changed from a carefree, trouble-making rebel to a more Emma-like, smart, reserved leader. I was beginning to hope that nobody sat next to me unless they actually wanted to talk to me, although nobody wanted to talk to me. That was why I was so surprised when a girl boarded the bus as always, but with a bulging book bag slung over her shoulders and a stack of books in her arms that reached her chin.

"Can I sit here?" She asked, trying to balance the books in her arms.

"Oh, sure." I said, rather reluctantly, and quickly scooted my bag closer to me to make room for the girl. She sat down and quickly lay the books on her lap and removed the bag from her shoulders, rubbing them from the pain caused by the strain of lifting such a heavy bag.

"Thanks," The girl said, turning to look at me. I simply simply smiled. "I'm Cleo." She said, holding out her hand for me to shake.

"Rikki." I said, taking her her hand to shake it. Little did I know, it would be the start of one of the best friendships of my life.

 **Hope you enjoyed... hopefully you did. I know things were short, and this is going to be pretty short. Expect an update within a day or two, or three at the most. After all, I'm writing out the chapters and then typing them and then editing them, the last two of which are done on my Kindle. As I've said before on another fanfic, if you see any mistakes, please point them out so that they can be fixed. Have a good day!**


	2. Too Good To Be True

**Hello. Sorry about the day delay in the upload. I know that I hate it when that happens in my favorite fanfictions, so sorry about that. Anyway, yesterday was the 4th Of July, so I did a whole bunch of stuff and got distracted and completely ran out of time to type and upload. So sorry about that, but I guess you didn't come here for me to blabber on about stuff you don't care about, so here's the chapter.**

The girl, Cleo, quickly became one of my best friends. She reminded me much of Emma with her determination to do well, but she was definitely more laid back than Emma. We bonded quickly and were soon telling each other secrets that we hadn't told anybody else before. They were, of course, little unimportant secrets like how I still slept with stuffed animals or who she had a crush on. These small secrets, however, led to a trust so deep that we could actually share the one thing that truly held her seperate and closer from any other friend that I had ever had, even Emma. It started when we both showed up on the bus the day after a huge washout. Despite the fact that it was now perfectly sunny and about 75 degrees Fahrenheit, we both ended up at our bus stops wearing rainboots, jeans, and jackets with the hoods pulled up over our heads. Cleo even wore thin gloves.

"Sorry I wasn't here yesterday. It was raining, so," Cleo began to explain.

"Oh, well I wasn't here, either." I said, interrupting her.

"Oh no, were you sick?" Cleo exclaimed, worried.

"No, I wasn't sick. I just," I paused, wondering how to say what I needed to say without sounding extremely strange or bizarre, "I don't come to school when it's raining. I mean, I barely had the confidence to come today. After all, the ground was covered in puddles."

"Oh, well I don't come when it's raining either." She replied. "Can't risk getting wet," She whispered, more to herself than anyone else.

"Can I tell you something? You have to promise not to tell anyone." Cleo looked up at me, as if surprised that I had said that.

"Of course," she said. Her voice sounded sympathetic, but her face told me that she didn't understand why I had felt the need to ask her if I could share a secret with her.

"Promise not to tell?"

"I, Cleo Sertori, solemnly swear to not speak of your secret to any living creature, not even a tree or a bush or a bird, as long as we both shall live." Her face twisted in confusion. "That last part sounded like a wedding." She said, rather dryly.

"Well," I began, taking a deep breath, "Whenever I get wet," I paused for a moment, "I become a"

"Mermaid." Cleo finished the sentence for me in a hushed whisper. I looked at her in awe.

"How did you know that?" I asked, shocked.

"You and I are alike in so many ways. It's no wonder we're such good friends." Cleo laughed.

"Wait," I said, still trying to comprehend, "You're a" I stopped to mouth 'mermaid', "too?"

"Yep," Cleo said, "You're the first to know, too. I haven't even told my parents."

"Wow! I never knew that we had so much in common!" A new thought emerged from the back of my brain. "Wait, do you have, like, power over water?"

"Why? Do you?" Cleo asked, a bit uneasy.

"Oh, um, yeah. I do." I said timidly. I pulled my clear plastic water bottle from my bag. I slowly clenched my hand into a fist and we watched the water bubble as it boiled. I looked over at Cleo, who seemed to be in the awe of the boiling water in the bottle. I slowly unclenched my fist and the heat of the water slowly decreased with my hand's movement.

"Wow," Cleo said, "That was awesome!"

"Okay, your turn!" I told her, turning my body to face her. I handed her the bottle and she took it, looking around to make sure nobosy was looking. She held the bottle close between us to hide her ability from prying eyes. She twisted the lid of the bottle and handed the cap to my. I took it and played with it nervously.

"Ready?" She asked me.

"Ready." I replied, leaning in to get a better view. She smiled and held her hand between the two of us and positioned it above and to the right of the bottle, her palm angled downward to face the top opening of the bottle. She slightly curved her fingers and twisted her hand, almost as if twisting the lid off of a jar. My mouth widened when I realized that the water was rising with the movement of her hand, swaying like a tentacle of H2O. I watched her move the water snake from side to side. She was the snake charmer, pulling the H2O snake into a graceful dance. Like the eel of water, I slipped into a blissful trance. However, the bus was pulled to a screeching halt and ,with the movement of the bus, my trance slipped away, but so did the water. Cleo was surprised by the sudden stop to the movement of the bus and lost control ofthe tentacle of water. It came crashing down onto the bus floor and splashed. We both yanked our legs onto the seat of the bus, narrowly avoiding being splashed by the mini wave of water that would have splashed onto our ankles if we hadn't acted quickly. We got a few stares from others on the bus, after all we had just created a mini tsunami on the bus floor. Cleo, however, acted quickly.

"Oops," She said, holding up the bottle, "I'm such a klutz. I guess that's why they don't let you drink water on the bus. Sorry. It won't happen again." She smiled awkwardly. The other bus riders bought the act and rose to exit the bus. "Wow! They actually believed that?" Cleo was amazed that her little act had tricked them all. It just seemed too good to be true, and that was the problem. It wasn't true.

 **That wasn't too short, was it? Hope not! Hopefully you enjoyed. As I always say, I typed this on my Kindle, so there are probably a WHOLE BUNCH OF MISTAKES. If you spot one, please point it out in a review so that it can be fixed. If that isn't enough for you, I give them a mini shout out in the following chapter. Anyway, in the next chapter, we will meet our antagonist! I'm considering writing a sequel that takes place when they're in high school. If I get a small ammount of support, or none at all because the idea's growing on me, the sequel will be written. All right, have a nice day!**


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